
Spain
Southern Spain Yesterday & Today: Madrid, Granada & Seville
Program No. 22175RJ
From olive groves to world-renowned cathedrals, Southern Spain is a diverse region just waiting to be explored. Discover the very best of Madrid, Granada and Seville!
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13 days
12 nights
21 meals
11B 7L 3D
1
In Transit to Program
In Flight
4
The Prado, Free afternoon
Madrid
5
Toledo
Madrid
13
Program Concludes
Departure
At a Glance
Glorious Gothic cathedrals, intricately detailed synagogues, traditional Moorish neighborhoods and ancient Roman ruins: The icons of Southern Spain are a testament to its distinct history of conquest, culture and art. Discover the unique legacy and exuberant modern life in Madrid, Granada and Seville through expert-led walks, lectures and excursions. Join us to learn about some of the most diverse and exciting cities in all of Europe.
Activity Level
Let's Go!
Participants should be able to walk approximately three to five miles a day and stand for at least 60-90 minutes at a time over the course of a 13 day program. Many cobblestones, steep slopes and other uneven ground. Comfortable footwear is essential.
Small Group
Love to learn and explore in a small-group setting? These adventures offer small, personal experiences with groups of 13 to 24 participants.
Best of all, you’ll…
- Discover a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Alhambra Palace and Generalife gardens.
- Explore the Museo Nacional del Prado, one of the world’s leading art museums.
- Spend an exciting evening seeing flamenco dance in Seville, and meet a local expert for a visit to the Alcázar Royal Palace.
General Notes
Program includes independent time to explore the city and several meals on your own. Group Leaders will provide directions for self-directed excursions. Suggestions for free-time activities provided in preparatory materials.
Featured Expert
All trip experts

Dara Cabrera
Dara Cabrera Vega is a passionate promoter of history, art, and cinema. She holds a B.A. in art history from the University of Granada and has published academic papers on heritage and audiovisual media. Dara has been the director of an art and technology school for almost 20 years, where she developed multimedia cultural projects. Dara is also a heritage interpreter and official guide of the Alhambra in Spanish and English.
Please note: This expert may not be available for every date of this program.

Dara Cabrera
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Dara Cabrera Vega is a passionate promoter of history, art, and cinema. She holds a B.A. in art history from the University of Granada and has published academic papers on heritage and audiovisual media. Dara has been the director of an art and technology school for almost 20 years, where she developed multimedia cultural projects. Dara is also a heritage interpreter and official guide of the Alhambra in Spanish and English.
Elena Moro
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Elena Moro, born in Australia to an Andalusian family, is a professional Flamenco dancer. She began at the age of 5 and has toured all over Australia and parts of Asia with a Flamenco dance company. After many years traveling back and forth with dance scholarships, Elena now lives in Seville. She has worked with Road Scholar for almost ten years as a Group Leader and travelled to most parts of Spain.
Lucia Gonzalez
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Lucía González has been leading groups since 2009, having worked in Norway and Scandinavia. Along with her travel leader studies, she took several languages, and has led groups around Europe in Spanish, English, French, German, and Italian. She is also a Spanish teacher, and is currently enrolled in an art history degree program. Lucía is passionate about traveling, both as a professional and as a free-spirited traveler.
Francisco García
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Francisco García was born in Madrid and received his B.A. in history from The Complutense University in Madrid. He then continued his studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees, specializing in medieval history; he also lectured there. He spent all of 1997 at the University of California in Berkeley on a Fulbright Investigative Scholarship. He is presently a professor at St. Louis University, Madrid Campus as an expert on the history of Spain.
Anjouli Janzon
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Anjouli Janzon has a deep passion for study abroad programs. With a Ph.D. in Spanish Cultural Studies from UC Berkeley, she has spent over 30 years crafting enriching study abroad experiences in Madrid, Spain for UC Berkeley, for NYU, and now for the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. Anjouli delights in conducting intercultural development seminars and teaching Spanish culture, all while mentoring her students through their transformative cultural immersion abroad.
Suggested Reading List
(15 books)
Visit the Road Scholar Bookshop
You can find many of the books we recommend at the Road Scholar store on bookshop.org, a website that supports local bookstores.
Southern Spain Yesterday & Today: Madrid, Granada & Seville
Program Number: 22175
The New Spain: A Complete Guide to Contemporary Spanish Wine
The Arts of Intimacy: Christian, Jews and Muslims in the Making of Castilian Culture
The authors paint a portrait of the culture through its arts, architecture, poetry and prose, uniquely combining literary and visual arts. Concentrating on the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the book reveals the extent to which Castilian identity is deeply rooted in the experience of confrontation, interaction, and at times union with Hebrew and Arabic cultures during the first centuries of its creation. Abundantly illustrated, the volume serves as a splendid souvenir of southern Spain; beautifully written, it illuminates a culture deeply enriched by others.
If I lived in Spain
Verses describe family life, school, shopping, and other aspects of everyday life in Spain, and introduce some basic Spanish words and phrases
South From Granada: Seven Years in a Andalusian Village
Part autobiography, part travelogue, and wholly a tribute to the unspoilt beauty of southern Spain
Tales of The Alhambra
Fiction
For Whom the Bell Tolls
Fiction
Tapas: The Lilttle Dishes of Spain
Penelope Casas, who introduced the classic little dishes of Spain to American cooks more than twenty years ago, now gives us a splendid updated edition of that seminal book with fifty exciting new recipes and eight full pages of new color photographs showing tapas in all their glory.
Spain: What Everyone Needs to Know
Spain has undergone significant transformations over the past three decades, from a dictatorship to a democracy and from a mostly local and agriculture-based economy to one of the biggest financial systems in the EU and internationally. Until 2008, it enjoyed a major influx of foreign investment and the most rapid economic growth of any of the countries in the EU, resulting in half of the new jobs created during the early days of the Union. Yet, it now faces the highest rate of unemployment in Europe and slow growth for the foreseeable future. Additionally, the country faces internal strife from the separatist Catalan region and stringent austerity measures.
Rivers of Gold. The Rise of the Spanish Empire
A history of Spain's first thirty years in the Americas traces Columbus's famous pioneering voyage through Magellan's first circumnavigation of the earth, in an account that offers insight into the period's political climate and profiles the era's monarchs and explorers.
Golden Age Spain
For over a century Spain controlled the greatest empire the world had ever seen, and its collapse provoked, both then as it does now, a range of analyses over which there has been little agreement. In the second edition of this successful text, Henry Kamen asks: was the Golden Age of Spain in the sixteenth century actually an illusion? By examining some of the key issues involved, Kamen offers a balanced discussion of this fundamental question.
The Spanish Civil War: A very short introduction
This Very Short Introduction offers a powerfully-written explanation of the war's complex origins and course, and explores its impact on a personal and international scale
Moorish Architecture of Andalusia
Moorish-Andalusian art and architecture combine elements of various traditions into a new, autonomous style. Among the outstanding architectural witnesses to this achievement are the Great Mosque in Cordova and the Alhambra in Granada, recognized and admired as part of the world's heitage right up to the present day. They are described in detail in this book. The main centres of Hispano-Islamic art and architecture, the cities of Cordova, Seville and Granada, are discussed within the chronological framework of developments, both political and cultural, from 710 to 1492.
Travelers' Tales: Spain: True Stories of Life on the Road
Journey into Spain with some of the world’s best writers, and discover a country of heightened senses, bougainvillea blossoming in crimson and orange, and air pungent with sizzling olive oil. Readers travel the ancient road to Santiago, get a glimpse of Pamplona during the running of the bulls, walk in Don Quixote’s footsteps on a midlife quest, and follow a woman’s dream to study the “male” art of flamenco guitar. These soulful stories of travel in a land poised between the old world and new. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Barbara Kingsolver, Calvin Trillin, and Penelope Casas are among the authors featured.
The Train in Spain
The bestselling author Christopher Howse makes ten great railway journeys that explore the interior of the peninsula, its astonishing landscapes and ancient buildings.The focus is the way the Spanish live now.
Mythology and History in the Great Paintings of the Prado
This selection from the master paintings of the Prado provides an opportunity for the reader to explore two fascinating themes represented in the collection: mythology and history. In addition to enjoying the pictures for their aesthetic qualities, the reader is drawn into what lies behind them, and the context within which they were created